ELECTION '98. CONTROL OF CONGRESS.

Wins In Close Races Revive Democrats

November 04, 1998|By Michael Tackett, Tribune Staff Writer.

Propelled by an unexpected late surge and a focus on issues that resonated on local levels, Democrats were poised to make history-making gains in the House in Tuesday's midterm elections and to win surprising victories over Republican incumbents in U.S. Senate and governor's races.

Though the results will be interpreted in the context of how they might affect impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, voters ranked the Clinton investigation nearly last in their list of major issues, according to exit polls.

At the same time, voters offered conflicting assessments of what they think should happen next. Nearly two-thirds of voters said Clinton deserves some form of punishment, but an almost equal number said he should not be removed from office. An even greater number of voters said they disapproved of how the Republican-controlled Congress has handled the impeachment inquiry.

Only a small percentage of voters said the scandal affected their ballots, but if nothing else, it served to galvanize attention on an election that otherwise seemed to generate little interest.

While Democrats appeared to make some gains, Republicans were almost certain to retain control of the House and the Senate. Going into Tuesday's elections, Republicans held a 228-206 edge in the House, with one independent, and a 55-45 advantage in the Senate.

If the trends for Democrats held, it would mark only the third time since the Civil War that the party in power in the White House gained House seats in a midterm election.

Voters seemed to be favoring divided government, a balance built on the natural tension between a having a Democrat in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress. That combination almost ensures only incremental change in government policy, which is one of the messages sent by a largely contented electorate.

A small percentage of voters definitely were casting votes against Clinton, but their numbers were insufficient to alter many outcomes.

In Senate races, the Democrats' biggest trophies were the seats held by Republicans in New York and North Carolina.

In New York, Rep. Charles Schumer defeated incumbent Sen. Alfonse D'Amato in one of the nastiest, costliest races in the nation. Schumer was able to roll up huge advantages among women and also benefited from the near unanimous support of African-American voters.

In North Carolina, conservative Sen. Lauch Faircloth, who tried to make the Clinton scandal an issue in the race, lost to Democrat John Edwards, a wealthy personal-injury lawyer.

In another critical race, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), appeared headed for victory over her Republican challenger, state Treasurer Matt Fong. Boxer had hammered Fong in the closing weeks of the campaign with a series of negative ads and, in the end, was apparently able to roll up sufficient margins among women voters to retain her seat.

But those victories were tempered by Democratic concerns over the seat held by Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, the first African-American woman elected to the Senate. She was trailing Rep. Peter Fitzgerald late Tuesday. The contests of two other Democrat incumbents, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, were too close to call.

Feingold set self-imposed spending limits on his campaign and asked that no money be spent by the party or by independent groups on his behalf. He chose to make his stand on campaign finance reform the central focus of his race, even though party officials and others told him that issue was not among voters' chief concerns. His opponent, Rep. Mark Neumann, first elected to the House in the 1994 Republican landslide, capitalized on that decision by emphasizing reducing government spending, protecting Social Security and working on a Republican version of HMO reform.

In open-seat races, former Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh easily won his race to reclaim a Senate seat for the Democrats that was once held by his father, Birch Bayh. Bayh, running on a platform of fiscal conservatism, defeated Ft. Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, who was trying to hold the seat of Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.). But Republicans took a Democrat's seat in Ohio, the one held by Sen. John Glenn, with a victory by Gov. George Voinovich over Democrat Mary Boyle.

The open-seat race in Kentucky between two members of the House seeking to move up pitted Democratic Rep. Scotty Baesler, a former star basketball player at the University of Kentucky, against Republican Rep. Jim Bunning, a Hall of Fame major-league baseball pitcher. Late Tuesday, Bunning led by a narrow margin.

In House races, the Democrats won several important races along the Ohio River Valley that they had targeted but, as late as last week, had thought they would lose.